528 
MA TORE 
[Sepz. 30, 1886 
uncommon event to see a tree flourish for years and then 
slowly die off from “something at the roots”: examina- 
tion shows that the soil still contains the necessary foods, 
the water-supply is constant and good, the tree is ex- 
posed to no obvious adverse influences, and yet with | 
steps so slow that they are scarcely noticeable, the tree 
begins to die off before its time. In some cases this is 
probably because the root-hairs are not receiving their 
proper supply of atmospheric oxygen, and this may be 
due to very slight changes in the structure (not the 
chemical composition) of the soil: a very slight diminu- 
tion in the activity of the root-hairs may cause a diminu- 
tion in the supply of water to the leaves at seasons when 
they require much, and this means lessening their 
supply {of food-materials. If the leaves are placed on 
short commons, they cannot form wood, and so the next 
season’s supply of nutritive solutions may be cut short ; 
moreover, fewer root-hairs will be formed. No doubt 
differences will appear in different years or seasons ; but 
if the tendency on the whole is in the above direction, the 
life of the tree is already limited—it may drag on for 
years as an object, which can scarcely be termed a tree 
however, but its doom is sealed. 
The difficulty of placing one’s hand on an exactly 
illustrative case is due to the fact that other causes are 
usually at work after a short time. I have purposely 
avoided any reference to the changes brought about in 
the chemical nature of a soil by the addition or cutting 
off of air, &c.; and for the same reason—to keep your 
attention directed to the root-hairs as living cells exposed 
to the influence of a definite environment—I have left out 
of account some questions of food-supply. These matters 
do not invalidate anything said above, but they do pro- 
foundly affect the problems of the diseases of plants, and 
especially those diseases which start from the roots. 
ON THE PROPOSAL TO ESTABLISH A PER- 
MANENT COLONIAL MUSEUM IN LONDON 
“| eee proposal to continue the present Colonial and 
Indian Exhibition at South Kensington having met 
with a good deal of support, it is worth while to examine 
it on its merits ; quite apart from the popular accessories 
of music, illuminations, &c., the continued existence of 
which depends upon altogether different considerations. 
The first point for examination is whether such a per- 
manent exhibition or museum would materially and use- 
fully supplement or form a real addition to the existing 
public institutions of London, for upon the determination 
of this question the decision ought largely to depend. 
On a general review of the vast collection of objects 
exhibited in the present Exhibition, they are seen to be 
mainly included under the four following categories :— 
(1) Natural history objects, or specimens of the animal, 
vegetable, and mineral kingdoms of Nature. 
(2) The raw products derived from them, and their 
economic applications. 
(3) Art of every description, with which may be in- 
cluded objects bearing upon archeology and ethnology. 
(4) Manufactures of all kinds. 
(1) With reference to natural history, it can scarcely 
be a public desideratum to attempt to form a new 
museum of this kind when there exists, within a few 
hundred yards of the Exhibition, the finest collection in 
the world in the great national Museum of Natural 
History. There the animals, plants, fossils, and minerals 
not only of the British colonies, but of the whole 
known world, are exhibited with a fullness and in a 
manner that there could not be a possibility of in any 
way approaching. 
(2) Then, as regards the economic uses of the veget- 
able kingdom at least—such as food-products, drugs, 
timbers, &c.—the nation possesses in the Museum of 
Kew Gardens a probably unrivalled public collection 
| 
admirably exhibited. Many years of energy anda very 
large expenditure of time and money would fail to make 
up again such a collection as this has now become. 
(3) Objects of art both ancient and modern form a very 
striking and important portion of the Exhibition. It is 
probable, however, that the best part of those which are 
not on loan have been sold or otherwise disposed of, and 
thus are not available for future exhibition. But with the 
South Kensington Museum at our doors, the initiation of 
a new art collection cannot be needed; whilst as for 
objects illustrative of ethnology and archeological speci- 
mens, they are, it is needless to say, magnificently 
displayed in the galleries of the old British Museum in 
Bloomsbury. 
(4) There remains only the commercial products ard 
manufactures of the colonies and India, and, so far as I 
am aware, there exists at present no general public col- 
lection of such articles. Here then, it appears to me, we 
have a reasonable basis for the formation of a permanent 
museum. A public collection of trade samples is a real 
want in London. 
It appears, then, from the above observations, that no 
necessity exists for a new gezeral museum of colonial 
and Indian productions, inasmuch as the public is already 
amply provided with other museums which _ illustrate 
fully nearly all the objects and articles proposed to be 
exhibited in the new one. 
There is also good reason to think that the multi- 
plication of museums is undesirable as well as un- 
necessary. We are not without experience of this, and 
the history of the late India Museum is quite to the point. 
The vast collections brought together by the Honourable 
East India Company were quite similar in kind to 
those it is now proposed to form, and illustrated very 
thoroughly the productions of India. But the Museum 
never attracted public interest or proved of much practical 
utility ; many departments were neglected, the specimens 
badly conserved, and not available for consultation or 
study, and at last its condition having become somewhat 
of an official scandal, it was, six or seven years ago, broken 
up and dispersed. It bears strongly on the remarks above 
made that the collections had to be distributed among 
the very museums which I have there enumerated. No 
doubt additions of much value thus accrued to them ; but 
there was also an immense mass of duplicate and 
damaged material, some of which at least was destroyed. 
After this experience it seems scarcely credible that a 
proposal to form again another general Zzdan Museum 
in London will be seriously entertained, whatever may be 
the case as regards the colonies. But in the latter, as in 
the former, it is almost certain that from similar causes a 
few years would witness the same history and a similar 
termination. 
It is then, I believe, in a permanent museum of trade 
samples and of the commercial products of our colonies 
thata really useful outcome of the present Exhibition is to 
be sought. The precise scope and, character of such a 
museum would of course require careful consideration ; 
but there is a great and increasing want of some central 
emporium of a public character where authentic samples, 
accurately determined and labelled, can be readily in- 
spected and examined by those interested in commercial 
pursuits. The collection might well be arranged geo- 
graphically, and should be accompanied by maps, trade 
statistics, and other aids to inquiry. Under able manage- 
ment such a museum would be capable of rendering great 
service to the commerce of the Empire, and be the means 
of bringing into trade the numerous neglected products of 
the world. I may add, parenthetically, that it would also 
relieve the staffs of our chief scientific establishments of a 
good deal of work, involving often much sacrifice of time, 
which now falls upon them, though outside the scope of 
their duties. 
The situation of such a museum should, however, be 
ee en ee 
